RMI Expeditions Blog

We started the day -as usual- in a cold cloud at high camp. We are finishing it in bright sunshine and relative warmth at Union Glacier. It was a hard day of down climbing with heavy packs, but by late afternoon we were in Vinson Base where a plane was waiting just for us. Our tents are up in a flat place tonight and the team is happily chatting with explorers, adventurers, scientists, guides, pilots and hard workers from around the world -all mixed in the comfortable ALE dining tent.
Chances are good that we’ll fly to Punta Arenas tomorrow.
More as time allows.

Not much wind at high camp this morning, but a heck of a lot of cloud when we checked it at 7 AM. Seemed like this was to be our opportunity though. We breakfasted in fog and light snow and got ready to climb. Nothing had changed by the time we got roped up at 9:45. We set off into the murk. Not a great day for pictures… but walking in a whiteout means there are few distractions. We took a quick rest break every hour or so and went steadily higher and colder. Light winds came up with face freezing potential as we neared the top, but almost miraculously, we lost all wind and even got a touch of sun as we went out the summit ridge. We hit the tippy top at 5:30 and liked it so much we spent 30 minutes up there. It took us three hours and ten minutes, mostly in cloud, to get back to high camp. Thankfully, there we got some late night sunshine to enjoy dinner by. The team is tired, but as you can imagine, we’re also pretty happy right now as we drift off to bed.

[Transcription of audio call from the summit]
Hey, this is the RMI 2016 Mt. Vinson Climb, We are on the summit of Mount Vinson, all of us! 100%, a team of 5 right up here on top! We climb through clouds all day, but here on the top we are looking up looking up at blue sky. It is calm on top. This team is done a great job. We’ll let you know we get back to high Camp and everything is good, and that’s what we expect because everybody is climbing strong.

That’s all for now, high from the top of Antarctica.

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Dave Hahn Calling from the Summit of Mount Vinson.

Finally in position. We moved up to Vinson high camp today (12,300 ft). It was calm at Low Camp this morning when we climbed out of our tents, but it really didn’t look that great up high -from our vantage point. There were still big wind sculpted clouds attached to the high summits. Our radio conversations with friends at high camp told a different story… they said it was calm and warm at high camp and folks were headed for the top. We geared up… dragging our feet just a bit in case the weather turned obviously bad. But it didn’t. We left our longtime home at low camp (9,200 ft) at 1:40 and cruised up in about six hours. Fog overtook the team about half way up the ropes though, and stuck with us to high camp, so we didn’t have any views. We reached camp about when the summit teams were getting back. They’d been above the clouds on the top. With all of our team feeling good and strong, it didn’t take much time to build our camp, eat dinner and get to bed. We ‘ve got a big day coming up tomorrow. Perhaps we’ll get some views along the way.

The wind finally quit this morning, about 20 minutes before the sun hit to start a much better day. It still wasn’t a climbing day for us though. There were still winds blowing snow off the ridge we needed to crest. They were dying down, but not quickly enough for my tastes. We dug out and dried out down at Vinson’s Low Camp… Licking our wounds, so to speak, after the epic storm. The team up at high camp seemed to have survived the blow and similarly, dug out and rested today. The teams with us at low camp went for a late afternoon start on moving up, We’ll give it a shot tomorrow. Finally with a couple of days of semi stable forecast in our favor. After several days of a constant roar it is great to be back to profound silence… the kind that stretches to the horizons.

Let’s get the exaggerations out of the way at the start… Winds today at Low Camp were between 70 and 80 mph. Except those figures are probably right, judging by how many times the gusts demolished the snow walls protecting our tents. Those walls were made of blocks we could barely lift. The storm is well and truly upon us… And upon everyone else too for that matter. There wasn’t any moving from camp to camp today -or carrying of loads. It was hunker down and hang on day. The storm didn’t let much sun through to warm us either, so life was grim. Conversation in the tents was tough to accomplish with the tent walls snapping like machine guns in your ear. Walking outside the tents was bound to include getting knocked to the ice a few times. But we are still hanging in, here at Low Camp, waiting to catch a break. The views we did have today were quite dramatic, with giant wind sculpted clouds diving off the high peaks. We can’t quite say yet that we’ve been through a full on Antarctic storm yet, because it ain’t over. Soon though.

When the late morning sun hit Low Camp, we looked up and saw that we didn’t actually want to be up high today. The forecaster got it right and a storm was easing onto the Vinson Massif. It wasn’t too bad at first, but we knew that one of the teams we’d been climbing alongside of had been forced to turn back from a summit attempt. Our day down low was spent in getting ready for a blow. The gang built strong snow walls and dug in. The storm hit Low Camp with surprising intensity around six in the evening. Winds got up to thirty and forty miles an hour and have stayed there (with higher gusts) for hours -it is midnight now. We’re tucked in now and listening to the roar. We are hoping our high camp friends are behind big fat snow and ice walls. We are happier to be down here for this event. Yesterday’s mishap now seems like a blessing in disguise.

Hard day of climbing today for our team. The day began (at eleven AM) with great weather but some uncertainty anyway. The forecast was calling for marginal weather again a couple of days out and so teams were struggling to decide whether to commit to the ascent. We committed and left Low Camp at 3:40 PM. The previous carry up the fixed ropes, plus a day of rest in between, both seemed to have done the trick. We were moving well and the day was staying good. We reached our previous high point (about 11,200) and then suffered a mishap. We dropped an essential piece of gear down the hill. The loaded backpack cruised on down our of sight. There was no choice but to descend, retrieve the gear, regroup and recoup at Low Camp. We’ve now accomplished a good chunk of that. We are thankful that nobody was hurt, that we’ve still got our gear and that we’ve got the resources and fortitude to try again when conditions allow.

Today was our much deserved rest day, but we’d have been hanging here at 9200 ft even if we weren’t deserving. It was a storm day on Vinson. Not so bad where we are, but pretty obviously bad up above. The upside of having all of the cloud cover was that temperatures were moderate this morning. We had our traditional noon breakfast followed by naps, books, daydreaming, water drinking and snow block stacking. The forecasts aren’t so positive for the next few days, so fortifying our tents is in order. Otherwise, we’re staying positive and enjoying a typical day at altitude in the interior of Antarctica.

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Damn, I wish I was there again. It’s such a special place. Like being on another planet. Speaking of other planets, or moons, did you guys hear that Buzz Aldrin was down there with you? Had to have a medical evac from the South Pole.

It was a sunny day, but the sun took its sweet time getting to us. It was about 10:30 before it made its way around the mountain to give us a little heat. We stayed patiently in our sleeping bags until then because it was mighty cold in the shadows. There was a little wind jetting off the ridge that High Camp sits on, and as we ate our brunch, that wind seemed to be swirling a little onto the fixed ropes. We set out on a carry at 1:50 while keeping an eye out for changing weather. It was nice to be going out with an ice axe in hand and crampons underfoot -like climbing again- after a couple of days of “snow slogging”. We spent a few minutes reviewing techniques for steep climbing before hopping on the fixed ropes. It was a hard couple of hours pushing up the firm and continuously steep snow. Luckily the wind held off on the main part of the climb, but it was obviously still gusting hard at the top of the lines. So we quit a little before the top -at perhaps 11,200 ft- and cached food and supplies. Then it was down the ropes and back into Low Camp by 8 PM.
A filling and hot dinner and it was time for bed. Rest day is in order for tomorrow.

Thanksgiving marks the beginning for many of a busy holiday season filled with visiting family, kids home from school, shopping and errands to run, and delicious meals. Busy days entertaining, traveling, or preparing can put pressure on your training time, and the changing weather doesn’t always help either. Your training plan is important, but during the often stressful holiday season remember that adapting, changing, rescheduling that plan is ok. A missed workout won’t affect your performance six months from now (though missing a week might), and shortening a workout is always better than canceling it completely. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind during the festive times:

Involve your family, friends, and guests: It’s easier to stick to your routine if you can involve others. Find a hike to make a group outing to, and make a day of it. Your guests get to have a nice adventure, stretch their legs, and get a few photos. You get some endurance base training in. If you have to slow the pace a bit, it’s ok; you’re still getting the miles in and improving your endurance base. You can increase your workload by offering to carry the group’s water bottles, jackets, cameras, and other odds and ends.

Use the mornings: Vacations often mean sleeping in, dawdling over a cup of coffee and breakfast, and enjoying time off. Try waking up 45 minutes earlier than you would and getting out the door for a run, hike, bike, or strength session. If you go to bed with a plan for the morning, it’s easy to get your workout done before anybody else has even gotten out of bed!

Have a few quick go-to workouts: Some days get busy, and the workout you may have planned just doesn’t fit. Having a few 30 – 45-minute workouts in reserve can be the difference between skipping your training entirely, and getting out the door. A couple of ideas are:

Remember to enjoy it: We head to the mountains because they bring us enjoyment, we spend time with family and friends because it brings enjoyment, and hopefully our training brings a measure of enjoyment as well. If your training regime becomes a chore that you feel like you have to get done, but dread doing, switch things up and spend a couple of days doing activities because you enjoy them rather than for their training benefits. When you find enjoyment in your training, you’ll train harder and more effectively, and it will be easier to get out the door. Similarly, don’t let the stress of fitting in training take away from enjoying the time you spend with friends and family. It is that time of the season after all!
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